The term that describes the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion is inertia. Inertia is defined as the property of an object to maintain its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is acted upon by an external force. This principle was first formulated by Isaac Newton in his first law of motion, which states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue moving at a constant velocity in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. This property of inertia is due to the mass of the object, which is a measure of its resistance to any change in motion.